The news report states that there may be some new changes in the standards of fishing safety laws require training of skippers and mandate Coast Guard inspections in what would be the first major overhaul of the safety laws that regulate the nation’s deadliest occupation. Midwestern congressman, Rep. James L. Oberstar, D-Minn pushes hard to new safety legislation.
Oberstar is chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which last month approved new regulation of the fishing industry. It is told that the legislation has been under development for more than two years and is expected to go to the full House for a vote this summer.
Some marine-industry officials say the legislation overreaches by establishing expensive and unnecessary new building requirements for boats as small as 50 feet. It is said that the effort to improve fishing-fleet safety has for decades pitted independent-minded boat owners — wary of bureaucratic rules — against reformers.
It is mentioned that a turning point came in 1988, when Congress passed the Fishing Vessel Safety Act. It included requirements for emergency locator beacons, survival suits for cold-water fishing and Coast Guard-approved life rafts. The law substantially improved the survival rates of fishermen who ended up in the water.
Jonathan Parrott, a Seattle naval architect with Jensen Maritime, said he supports requiring all new fishing vessels that are 50 feet or longer to have watertight construction of holds and a stability letter.
